


When Harry Met Sally

by WritingToKeepMySanity



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Gen, Just a pinch of angst, blue candy, cross-over, harry and sally meet, i just stole the name, kane chronicles mention, not based off the movie at all, ron loses his wand
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-28
Updated: 2014-05-28
Packaged: 2018-01-26 22:12:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1704410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WritingToKeepMySanity/pseuds/WritingToKeepMySanity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Harry came to America to investigate "magicians", he never expected to be mistaken for a woman's lost son.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When Harry Met Sally

**Author's Note:**

> I was thinking of random movie titles, and "When Harry Met Sally" flashed across my mind. I've never seen it, so I'm neither encouraging nor discouraging you to watch it. I do not own 'Percy Jackson', 'Harry Potter', or 'When Harry Met Sally'. And for inquiring minds, this takes place approximately a month before 'Son of Neptune'.

"This is such a strange place..." Ron mused, taking in his surroundings.

"Oh, Ron. It's not THAT different from London." Hermione countered, rolling her eyes. As the very words left her lips, someone shoved past her, knocking her into Harry, who narrowly missed a light pole.

"Well," Harry said, steadying himself and Hermione. "If I do say so, Londoners are much more polite." 

Ron and Hermione laughed as the trio attempted to navigate the busy streets of Manhattan. True to Hermione's word, London and New York weren't extraordinarily different-- They were both drizzly and packed with people rushing to and fro. But, as Harry had mentioned, New Yorkers were far less civilized.

"So, Hermione," Harry called over the noise of people around them. "Where exactly are we supposed to be going?"

There had been rumors flying around about others who claimed to perform magic. They didn't refer to themselves as witches or wizards, but as "magicians". The Ministry was worried about the possible threat, so Kingsley had sent Ron, Hermione and Harry to speak with some American ambassadors and find out what they knew.

"We're meeting them in Brooklyn," she replied, gripping his jacket with one hand and holding Ron's hand with the other. "We're looking for someone named..." Her lips pursed as she thought. "Kane, I believe. We need to get to Grand Central Station and take a train."

Ron groaned. "Can't  we Apparate?" he grumbled.

Hermione quickly shushed him. "Ron, there are too many Muggles around," she hissed. "Besides, Kingsley wants us to travel as normally as poss-- Oh, look! Here it is!" 

She promptly steered them through the crowd into the packed train station. Moving quickly, they made their way through the station, occasionally stopping to check their instructions, or to stop and marvel at small Muggle shops (they all agreed that, while  fascinating, Muggle shops weren't nearly as interesting as the shops in Diagon Ally). Once, Harry and Hermione had to physically drag Ron away from a sweets shop.

Just as they were nearing the platform, Ron suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"Ron! What are you doing?" Hermione tugged on his hand.

He refused to budge, dropping her hand and thrusting both of his into his jeans pockets. People pushed from all directions, trying to pass as Ron proceeded to turn out his pockets.

Cursing, he looked at Harry and Hermione. "I've lost my wand," he hissed.

Hermione looked panicky. "Ronald Weasley! How could you lose your wand?"

"I don't know," he moaned helplessly. "It was just in my jacket and now it's gone!"

Before Hermione could round on him (for he could see it coming), Harry stepped in. "Alright, we'll just have to split up. Each of us  retrace our steps from here to just outside. If we can't find it then, we'll start our way back to the airport."

Hermione looked skeptical. "Splitting up? That sounds like a really b—“

"Brilliant idea, Harry!" Ron interrupted before dashing off towards the entrance, avoiding Hermione's scolding. Harry glanced at Hermione hesitantly.

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, all  right ," she sighed. She took off in a different direction, muttering. Harry caught the words "Ron", " prat ", and "irresponsible" before she was out of earshot. 

Grinning, Harry chose a random direction and set off, looking for anything that could remotely resemble Ron's wand.

By chance, he found himself at the sweets shop they'd pulled Ron away from. Glancing at the sign (it read, "Sweet on America"), Harry decided it couldn't hurt to check inside.

There were only a handful of people in the shop, two of them being young teenaged girls, obviously employees, with matching red, white and blue uniforms.

He strolled around the perimeter, trying not to let the sweet smell of candy distract him. Stopping at a display of toffees, Harry couldn't help but think how boring the place was, compared to Honeydukes. But at the same time, he thought, it had a homey feel that the enchanted sweet shop seemed to lack.

Shrugging a bit to himself, and declaring that Ron's wand was not there, Harry turned to leave. However, his trainer had come untied, and turning too quickly caused him to trip  over his own laces and stumble into a glass case. Instantly, he felt sharp pain on his forehead.

For a moment, he panicked. It was nearly five years after the battle at Hogwarts and his scar hadn't hurt since. Was it hurting now? Why? What was happening? Was something  worse than Voldemort coming?

All this flitted through his mind in less than a second before Harry realized that the pain was far too low on his head to be his scar and that he suddenly could not see.

Biting back a steady stream of curses, he pulled of his glasses. Sure enough, he had broken them again. Sighing, he placed them in his pocket, deciding to fix them on the train.

Flattening his bangs against his forehead, Harry squinted at the display in front of him. If his eyesight weren't so blurry, he could've sworn that the entire display was of blue candy. He blinked, squeezing his eyes shut and opening them again.

Yes, that was definitely blue candy.

Americans and their odd quirks, he managed to think idly, before a hand came down on

his shoulder, turning him around. He dropped his hand in surprise.

"Percy?" A female's voice asked breathlessly.

Harry's eyes widened. Before he could even shake his head, the woman's shoulders drooped; her hand fell from his shoulder. "I-I'm sorry," she sighed sadly. "You just-You look a lot like... Someone I know."

Harry couldn't make out details, but he saw that the woman had long, dark hair and was very, very sad.  The kind of sadness that came with loss.

He knew what that felt like.

Shaking his head, Harry apologized. "Sorry to say, but my name's not Percy. It's Harry. Harry Potter." He inwardly winced before remembering that he wasn't as famous here in the states as he was in England.

The woman smiled. "Sally Jackson.  Nice to meet you, Harry."

Harry smiled back, shaking her hand. "So, who's this 'Percy' you're looking for?" The only Percy he knew was Ron's older brother, though he (along with most of the other Weasley's) sometimes liked to pretend otherwise.

The smile disappeared. There it was again, the sadness.

"Sorry," he quickly amended. "It's none of my business, really—“

"No, no," she interrupted. "It's just... He's my son. I haven't seen him in a very long time. You look just like him—you’re hair and eyes, though, and his eyes have more of a blue tint to them. But his hair is just as wild. That boy can't keep his hair tamed to save his life. His is shorter, though. And you do seem a bit older than he is..." she stopped, suddenly, and blushed. "I'm sorry, I'm rambling."

" It’s fine," Harry assured her. "What happened? Did you have a row?" She cocked her head, giving him a questioning look. "Sorry, I meant a..." he trailed off, thinking of the appropriate term. “Fight. Did you two fight and he left?"

"Oh, no," she said, quickly, shaking her head. "No, he just...  Disappeared. Vanished. We have no idea what happened." She trailed off, no doubt getting lost in memories.

Harry had an urge to help this Muggle, though he'd never met her before. No one—man, woman or child , Muggle or magical —should have to face something like that. But before he could come up with any ideas, Hermione seemingly materialized next to him, Ron in tow.

"Harry! There you are! Ron  finally found it, just outside—” she stopped when she noticed Sally. "Oh, excuse us, are we interrupting?"

"No, of course not," Sally said quickly. She picked up a bag of blue candy from the display. "I was just going. Goodbye, Harry." She smiled and, just as quickly as she'd come, disappeared.

"Who was that, mate?" Ron asked, watching her go.

Harry shook himself out of his daze. He hadn't even said goodbye.  "Just a Muggle woman. She mistook me for her son." Before either of them could inquire further, he rushed on.

"Don't we have a train to catch?"

Not ten minutes later, they were seated on the train. Ron and Hermione recounted how Ron finally found his wand (a homeless man had taken it and was about to use it as firewood), but Harry tuned them out. His thoughts were still back at the sweets shop with Sally. He may not have been able to see very clearly (which reminded him he still needed to fix his glasses. He pulled them out, along with his wand, and mended them quickly), but he saw enough to know three things.

One: Sally Jackson loved her son.  Very much.

Just hearing her state how alike he and Percy were, their green eyes and messy hair, Harry could tell she loved and cared for Percy.

Two: Sally Jackson missed her son.  Very much.

Harry could've been blind and he still would have noticed that. The sadness seemed to roll off her in waves. Percy's disappearance had grieved her.

Three: Percy Jackson was lucky to have a mother like Sally.  Very lucky.

He tried not to feel jealous as the train lurched and chugged away from the station, but it was hard not to. Harry would never have anyone to miss him like that. Not Ron or Hermione or Ginny, or even Mrs. Weasley, the only mother figure in his life. Sure, they'd missed him, but it wasn't the same as your own mother missing you, worrying for your safety. 

It was absurd, really, envying some Muggle he'd never met and whose mother he'd spent a total of five minutes with, but he couldn't fight down the wave of emotion.

Ron and Hermione, seeing Harry's disinterest in the retrieval of Ron's wand, had switched topics, and were now arguing about whether it was truly better to travel as a Muggle or not.

Leaning his head against the windowpane, Harry thought of the Muggle woman and her son as he listened to his friends bicker and watch as the world slipped by.

_Goodbye, Sally Jackson_ , he thought. _I hope you find your son._ _ And Percy? I hope you realize what a great thing you have. _

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Peace, love, and sanity!


End file.
